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MR. WINTHROP^S ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



BOWDOIN COLLEGE, 



ON THE AFTERNOON OF THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT, 



SEPTEMBER 5, 1849. 



^f 



By ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 




OF CO,V:;^, 



^ 



%^.. y 



BOSTON: 
TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS 

MDCCCXLIX. 
I 



F^7 



•3ts^ 



At a meeting of the Maine Historical Society, holden on Commencement 
day, at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, September 5, 1849, 

Voted, — That the thanks of the Society be presented to the Hon. 
Robert C. Winthrop, for the very appropriate and valuable discourse 
pronounced by him before the Society this day, commemorating the history 
and virtues of his worthy ancestors of the Bowdoin family, and embracing 
a just tribute to the honored patron of Bowdoin College ; — and that a copy 
be requested for the press. x 

A true copy. 

Attest. William Willis, Recording Secretary. 



boston: 

thurston, torry and company, 

31 Devonshire Street. 



c/ 



? \ 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen 

OF THE Maine Historical Society : 

I AM here, as you are aware, and as I trust this 
crowded and brilliant assembly is aware, for no pur- 
pose of literary discussion, philosophical speculation, 
or oratorical display. The character of the occasion 
would alone have pointed me to a widely different 
line of remark, and would, indeed, have imperatively 
claimed of me some more substantial contribution to 
the objects for which you are associated. But your 
committee of invitation have kindly relieved me from 
the responsibility of selecting a topic from the wide 
field of American history, and have afforded me a most 
agreeable and welcome opportunity of fulfilling a long 
cherished intention. They have called upon me, as 
one likely to have more than ordinary materials for 
such a work, as well as likely to take a more than 
ordinary interest in its performance, to give some 
ampler account than has ever yet been supplied, of a 
Family, which, while it may fairly claim a place in 
the history of the nation, as having furnished one 



(Jl 



4 

of the most distinguished of our revohitionary states- 
men and patriots, has been more directly identified, 
both by its earhest adventures and by its latest acts, 
with the history of Maine ; — of Maine, both as it once 
•yvas, — an honored and cherished part of the good old 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, — and as it now is, — 
a proud, prosperous, and independent State. 

In preparing myself to comply with this call, I have 
felt bound to abandon all ideas of ambitious rhetoric, 
to forego all custom of declamation, to clip the wings 
of any little fancy which I might possess, and to be- 
take myself to a diligent examination of such private 
papers and public records as might promise to throw 
light upon my subject. I come now, gentlemen, to lay 
before you, in the simplest manner, the fruits of my 
research. 

I hold in my hand an original manuscript in the 
French language, which, being interpreted, is as fol- 
lows : 

" To his Excellency, the Governor-in-Chief of New England, 
humbly prays Pierre Baudouin, saying : that having been obliged, 
by the rigors which were exercised towards the Protestants in 
France, to depart thence with his family, and having sought refuge 
in the realm of Ireland, at the City of Dublin, to which place it 
pleased the Receivers of His Majesty's Customs to admit him, your 
petitioner was employed in one of the bureaux ; but afterwards, 
there being a change of officers, he was left without any employ- 
ment. This was what caused the petitioner and his family, to the 
number of six persons, to withdraw into this territory, in the town 
of Casco, and Province of Maine ; and seeing that there are many 
lands which are not occupied, and particularly those which are 
situated at the point of Barbary Creek, may it please your Excel- 
lency to decree that there may be assigned to your petitioner 
about one hundred acres, to the end that he may have the means of 



supporting his family. And he will continue to pray God for the 

health and prosperity of your Excellency. 

" Pierre Baudouin." 

Such was the first introduction into New England 
of a name which was destined to be connected with 
not a few of the most important events of its subse- 
quent history, and which is now indissolubly associ- 
ated with more than one of its most cherished institu- 
tions of education, literature, and science. 

Driven out from his home and native land by the 
fury of that religious persecution, for which Louis 
XIV. gave the signal by the revocation of the edict of 
Nantz, — disappointed in his attempt to secure the 
means of an humble support in Ireland, whither he 
had at first fled, — Pierre Baudouin, in the summer of 
1687, presents himself as a suppliant to Sir Edmund 
Andros, then Governor-in-Chief of New England, for 
a hundred acres of unoccupied land at the point of 
Barbary Creek in Casco Bay, in the Province of 
Maine, that he may earn bread for himself and his 
family by the sweat of his brow. 

He was one of that noble sect of Huguenots, of 
which John Calvin may be regarded as the great 
founder and exemplar, — of which Gaspard de Co- 
ligny, the generous and gallant admiral, who " filled 
the kingdom of France with the glory and terror of 
his name for the space of twelve years," was one of 
the most devoted disciples and one of the most la- 
mented martyrs, — and which has furnished to our 
own land blood every way worthy of being mingled 
with the best that has ever flowed in the veins either 
of southern Cavalier or northern Puritan. 



He was of that same noble stock which gave three 
Presidents out of nine to the old Congress of the 
Confederation; which gave her Laurenses and Ma- 
rions, her Hugers and Manigaults, her Prioleaus and 
Gaillards and Legares to South Carolina ; which 
gave her Jays to New York, her Boudinots to New 
Jersey, her Brimmers, her Dexters, and her Peter 
Faneuil, with the Cradle of Liberty, to Massachusetts. 

He came from the famous town of Pochelle, which 
was for so many years the very stronghold and rally- 
ing point of Protestantism in France, and which, in 
1629, held out so long and so heroically against the 
siege, which Richelieu himself thought it no shame to 
conduct in person. 

He is said to have been a physician by profession. 
The mere internal evidence of the paper which I have 
produced, though the idiom may not be altogether of 
the latest Parisian, shows him to have been a man of 
education. Wliile, without insisting on tracing back 
his pedigree, as others have done, either to Baldwin, 
Count of Flanders in 862, or to Baldwin the chival- 
rous King of Jerusalem in 1143, both of whom, it 
seems, spelled their names precisely as he did, there 
is ample testimony that he was a man both of family 
and fortune in his own land. 

" I am the eldest descendant," — wrote James Bow- 
doin, the patron of the College within whose precincts 
we are assembled, — " from one of those unfortunate 
families which was obliged to fly their native country 
on account of religion ; — a family, which, as I under- 
stand, lived in aflluence, perhaps elegance, uj)on a 
handsome estate in the neighborhood of Rochelle, 



which at that time (1685) yielded the considerable 
income of 700 louis d'ors per annum." 

This estate was, of course, irrecoverably forfeited by 
his flight, and at the end of two years of painful and 
perilous adventure, he landed upon the shores of New^ 
England, with no other wealth but a wife and four 
children, and the fi'eedom to worship God after the 
dictates of his own conscience. 

His petition, which has no date of its own, but 
which is indorsed 2d August, 1687, was favorably 
received by Sir Edmund Andros, and the public 
records in the state department of Massachusetts 
contain a warrant, signed by Sir Edmund, and di- 
rected to Mr. Richard Clements, deputy surveyor, 
authorizing and requiring him to lay out one hundred 
acres of vacant land in Casco Bay for Pierre Baudouin, 
in such place as he should be directed by Edward 
Tyng, Esq., one of his majesty's coimcil. The war- 
rant bears date Oct. 8, 1687. 

Before this warrant was executed, however, Pierre 
Baudouin had obtained possession of a few acres of 
land on what is now the high road from Portland to 
Yaughan's Bridge, a few rods northerly of the house 
of the Hon. Nicholas Emery. A solitary apple-tree, 
and a few rocks which apparently formed the curbing 
of a well, were all that remained about twenty years 
ago, to mark the site of this original dwelling-place 
of the Bowdoins in America. I know not whether 
even these could now be found. 

In this original dwelling-place, Pierre and his 
family remained only about two years and a half He 
had probably heard of the successful establishment in 



8 

Boston, a year or two previously, of a Protestant 
church by some of his fellow fugitives from France. 
He is likely to have been still more strongly prompted 
to an early abandonment of this residence, by its 
extreme exposure to the hostile incursions and depre- 
dations of the French and Indians, who were leagued 
together, at this time, in an attempt to break up the 
British settlements on this j)art of the North American 
continent. And most narrowly, and most providen- 
tially, did he escape this peril. On the 17th of May, 
1690, the fort at Casco was attacked and destroyed, 
and a general massacre of the settlers was perpetrated 
by the Indians. On the 16th, just twenty-four hours 
previously, Pierre Baudouin and his family had 
plucked up their stakes and departed for Boston. 
A race which had survived the Massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew's, and the siege of Rochelle, was not destined 
to perish thus ignobly in the wilderness ! 

Pierre himself, however, lived but a short time after 
his arrival at Boston, and his eldest son, James, was 
left at the age of seventeen years, with the charge of 
maintaining a mother, a younger brother, and two 
sisters, in a strange land. 

The energy, perseverance, and success with which 
this trying responsibility was met and was discharged 
by James Bowdoin, (the first of that name in Ame- 
rica,) is sufficiently attested by the fact, that he soon 
rose to the very first rank among the merchants of 
Boston, that he was chosen a member of the Colonial 
Council for several years before his death, and that he 
left to his children, as the fruit of a long life of indus- 
try and integrity, the greatest estate which had ever 



9 



been possessed, at that day, by any one person in 
Massachusetts; an estate which I have seen esti- 
mated at from fifty to one hundred thousand pounds 
sterUng. 

Of the two sons, who succeeded equally to the 
largest part of this estate, James Bowdom, who will 
form the principal subject of this discourse, was the 
youngest. 

He was born in Boston on the 7th of August, 1726, 
and after receiving the rudiments of his education at 
the South Grammar School of that town, under Master 
Lovell, he was sent to Harvard College, where he was 
graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1745. The death of 
his father occurred about two years later, and he was 
thus left with an independent estate just as he had 
attained to his majority. 

It is hardly to be presumed that a young man of 
twenty-one years of age, of a liberal education, and an 
ample fortune, would devote himself at once and 
exclusively to mere mercantile pursuits. Nor am I 
inclined to believe that he ever gave much practical 
attention to them. But the earliest letter directed to 
him, which I find among the family papers, proves 
that he must have been, at least nominally, engaged 
in commercial busmess. It is directed to " Mr. James 
Bowdoin, Merchant." 

This letter, however, has a far higher interest than 
as merely designating an address. It is dated Phila- 
delphia, Oct. 25, 1750, and is in the following words: 

" Sir, — Enclosed with this I send you all my Electrical papers 
fairly transcribed, and I have, as you desired, examined the copy, 
and find it correct. I shall be glad to have your observations on 
2 



10 



them ; and if in any part I have not made myself well understood, 
I will on notice endeavor to explain the obscure passages by letter. 

" My compliments to Mr. Cooper and the other gentleman who 
were with you here. I hope you all got safe home. 
" I am, Sir, your most humble servant, 

" B. FRANKLIN." 

The young Bowdoin, it seems, — wlio at the date of 
this letter was but four and twenty years old, — had 
made a journey to Philadelphia, (a journey at that 
day almost equal to a voyage to London at this,) in 
company with his friend and pastor, the Reverend 
Samuel Cooper, afterwards the celebrated Dr. Cooper 
of Brattle Street Church, — and having there sought 
the acquaintance of Dr. Franklin, had so impressed 
himself upon his regard and respect, that Franklin, in 
transmitting to him his electrical papers, takes occasion 
to invite his observations upon them. 

Franklin was then at the age of forty-four years, 
and in the very maturity of his powers. Although he 
was at this time holding an office connected with the 
post-office department of the Colonies, as the frank 
on the cover of this letter indicates, he was already 
deeply engaged in those great philosophical inquiries 
and experiments Avhich were soon to place him on the 
highest pinnacle of fame. 

The acquaintance between Franklin and Bowdoin, 
which had thus been formed at Philadelphia, was 
rapidly ripened into a most intimate and enduring 
friendship ; and with this letter commenced a corres- 
pondence which terminated only with their lives. 

At the outset of this correspondence, Bowdoin 
appears to have availed himself of the invitation to 
make observations on Franklin's theories and specula- 



11 

tions, with somewhat more of independence of opinion 
than might have been expected from the disparity of 
their ages. One of his earhest letters (21st Dec. 1751) 
suggested such forcible objections to the hypothesis, 
that the sea was the grand source of electricity, that 
Franklin was led to say in his reply, (24th January, 
1752,) — "I grow more doubtful of my former sup- 
position, and more ready to allow weight to that 
objection, (drawn from the activity of the electric fluid 
and the readiness of water to conduct,) which you have 
indeed stated with great strength and clearness." In 
the following year Franklin retracted this hypothesis 
altogether. The same letter of Bowdoin's contained 
an elaborate explication of the cause of the crooked 
direction of lightning, which Franklin pronounced, in 
his reply, to be " both ingenious and solid," — adding, 
" when we can account as satisfactorily for the elec- 
trification of clouds, I think that branch of natural 
philosophy will be nearly complete." 

In a subsequent letter, Bowdoin suggested a theory 
in regard to the luminousness of water under certain 
circumstances, ascribing it to the presence of minute 
phosphorescent animals, of which Franklin said, in 
his reply, (13th Dec. 1753,) — " The observations you 
made of the sea water emitting more or less light in 
different tracts passed through by your boat, is new, 
and your mode of accounting for it ingenious. It is, 
indeed, very possible, that an extremely small animal- 
cule, too small to be visible even by our best glasses, 
may yet give a visible light." This theory has since 
been very generally received. 

Franklin soon after paid our young philosopher the 



12 

more substantial and unequivocal compliment of send- 
ing his letters to London, where they were read at the 
Royal Society, and published in a volume with his 
own. The Royal Society, at a later day, made Bowdoin 
one of their fellows ; and Franklin writing to Bowdoin 
from London, Jan. 13,1772, says: " It gives me great 
pleasure that my book afforded any to my friends. I 
esteem those letters of yours among its brightest orna- 
ments, and have the satisfaction to find that they add 
greatly to the reputation of American philosophy." 

But the sympathies of Franklin and Bowdoin were 
not destined to be long confined to philosophical in- 
quiries. There were other clouds than those of the 
sky, gathering thickly and darkly around them, and 
which were about to require another and more prac- 
tical sort of science, to break their force and rob them 
of their fires. " Eripuit ccdo fulmen^ sceptrumque ty- 
rannis " is the proud motto upon one of the medals 
which were struck in honor of Franklin. Bowdoin, 
we shall see, was one of his counsellors and coadjutors 
in both the processes which secured for him this envi- 
able ascription. 

Bowdoin entered into political life in the year 1753, 
as one of the four representatives of Boston, in the 
Provincial Legislature of Massachusetts, and remained 
a member of the House for three years, having been 
re-elected by the same constituency in 1754 and 1755. 

The American Colonies were, at this moment, mainly 
engaged in resisting the encroachments of the French 
upon their boundaries. The Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay devoted itself, with especial zeal, to this object. 



13 



It was said, and truly said, by their Councillors in 
1755, in an answer to one of Governor Shirley's Mes- 
sages, " that since the peace of Aix la Chapelle (1748), 
we have been at more expense for preventing and 
removing the French encroachments, we do not say 
than any other Colony, but than all His Majesty's 
Colonies besides." 

Bowdoin appears from the journals to have co-ope- 
rated cordially in making provision for the expeditions 
to Nova Scotia and Crown Point, and in all the mili- 
tary measures of defence. He seems, however, to have 
been more particularly interested in promoting that 
great civil or political measure of safety and security 
which was so seriously agitated at this time, — the 
Union of the Colonies. 

In June, 1754, a convention of delegates from the 
various Colonies was held at Albany, under royal 
authority and recommendation, to consider a plan of 
uniting the Colonies in measures for their general 
defence. Of this convention, Franklin was a member, 
and a plan of general union, known afterwards as the 
Albany plan of union, but of which he was the pro- 
jector and proposer, was conditionally adopted by the 
unanimous vote of the delegates. The condition was, 
that it should be confirmed by the various Colonial 
Assemblies. 

In December, 1754, the measure was largely debated 
in the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, 
and on the 14th day of that month, the House came to 
a vote on the three following questions : 

1. " Whether the House accept of the general plan 
of union as reported by the commissioners convened 



14 

at Albany in June last." This was decided in the 
negative. 

2. " Whether the House accept of the partial plan 
of union reported by the last committee of both 
Houses, appointed on the Union." This, also, was 
decided in the negative. 

3. "Whether it be the mind of the House, that 
there be a General Union of his Majesty's Colonies on 
this Continent, except those of Nova Scotia and 
Georgia." This proposition was decided in the affir- 
mative by a large majority. 

The proceedings of the legislative bodies of the 
Colonies, and indeed of all other legislative bodies, 
wherever they existed throughout the world, were at 
that time conducted in secrecy. As late as 1776, Con- 
gress discussed every thing with closed doors, and we 
are indebted to Mr. Jefferson's Notes for all that we 
know of the debates on the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Even to this day, there is no authority for the 
admission either of reporters or listeners to the halls 
of the British parliament. A single member may 
demand, at any moment, that the galleries be cleared, 
and may insist on the execution of the demand. Prac- 
tically, however, the proceedings of parliament and of 
almost all other legislative bodies are now public, 
and no one can over-estimate the importance of the 
change. 

Doubtless, when debates were conducted with closed 
doors, there were no speeches for Buncombe, no clap- 
traps for the galleries, no flourishes for the ladies, and 
it required no hour-rule, perhaps, to keep men within 
some bounds of relevancy. But one of the great 



15 



sources of instruction and information, in regard both 
to the general measures of government, and to the 
particular conduct of their own representatives, was 
then shut out from the people, and words which might 
have roused them to the vindication of justice or to the 
overthrow of tyranny were lost in the utterance. The 
perfect publicity of legislative proceedings is hardly 
second to the freedom of the press, in its influence 
upon the progress and perpetuity of human liberty, 
though, like the freedom of the press, it may be 
attended Avith inconveniences and abuses. 

It is a most significant fact in this connection, that 
the earliest instance of authorized publicity being 
given to the deliberations of a legislative body in 
modern days, was in this same House of Representa- 
tives of Massachusetts, on the 3d day of June, 1766, 
when, upon motion of James Otis, and during the 
debates which arose on the questions of the repeal of 
the stamp act, and of compensation to the sufferers by 
the riots in Boston, to which that act had given occa- 
sion, a resolution was carried " for opening a gallery 
for such as wished to hear the debates." The influence 
of this measure in preparing the public mind for the 
great revolutionary events which were soon to follow, 
can hardly be exaggerated. 

Of the debates in 1754 on the union of the Colonies, 
we, of course, have no record. But I find among the 
fiimily papers, a brief and imperfect memorandum, in 
his own hand-writing, of a speech made by Bowdoin 
on this occasion. 

" It seems to be generally allowed (said he) that an 
union of some sort is necessary. If that be granted, 



16 



the only question to be considered is, whether the 
union shall be general or partial. It has been my 
opinion, and still is, that a general union would be 
most salutary. If the Colonies were united, they could 
easily drive the French out of this part of America ; 
but, in a disunited state, the French, though not a 
tenth part so numerous, are an overmatch for them 
all. They are under one head and one direction, and 
all pull one way ; whereas the Colonies have no head, 
some of them are under no direction in military 
matters, and all pull different ways. Join or Die, 
must be their motto." 

After alluding to the importance of a union in 
reference to the Indian trade, he goes on to say, that 
" another advantage of a general union is, that the 
French Cape Breton trade would be put an end to." 

" This trade (he continued) has been long com- 
plained of, not only as detrimental to our own trade, 
but as the French have, by means thereof, been 
furnished with provisions of all kinds, not only 
for themselves at Louisburg, but for Canada and 
the forces which they have employed on the Ohio. 
The flour they had there was marked with the 
Philadelphia and New York brand. They are sup- 
plied from the Colonies with the means of effecting 
their destruction; and their destruction will be the 
consequence of that trade, unless it be stopped. And 
it 7nust he stopped hy heing subjected to the regulations 
of a general unions 

Thus early did Bowdoin suggest and advocate that 
great idea of a general union of the Colonies for the 
regulation of trade, which we shall find him, almost 



17 

half a century afterwards, in no small degree instru- 
mental in accomplisliing and realizing through the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. 

The prominent part which he took, in 1754, in 
favor of the measure, is proved by the fact, that imme- 
diately after the adoption of the proposition which I 
have stated, he was made the chairman of a committee 
of seven, on the part of the House, with such as the 
Council might join, " to consider and report a general 
plan of union of the several Colonies on this continent, 
except those of Nova Scotia and Georgia." 

It appears that this committee agreed upon such a 
plan, and that it was adopted by the Council. On 
being brought down to the House, however, its con- 
sideration was deferred, to allow time for members to 
consult their constituents, and a motion to print it 
was negatived. It was never again taken up, and I 
know not that any copy of it remains. Greater 
dangers, and from a more formidable source, were 
needed, to impress upon the Colonies the vital impor- 
tance of that Union, without which their liberties and 
independence never could have been achieved. Nor 
were such greater dangers distant. 

In May, 1757, after an interval of a single year from 
the termination of his three years' service in the House 
of Representatives, Bowdoin was elected by that body 
a member of the Council. 

The Council of that day was not a mere Executive 
Council, like that wdiich exists under the present 
Constitution of Massachusetts, but was a coordinate 
and independent branch of the Colonial Legislature. 
It was composed of twenty-eight members, a larger 

3 



18 



number than the Senate of the United States contained 
at the adoption of the Constitution, and was in ahnost 
every respect analogous to the Senates of our own 
day. To this body Bowdoin was annually re-elected, 
from 1757 to 1774, and he actually served as a 
member of it, with what zeal and ability we shall 
presently see, during sixteen of these seventeen succes- 
sive years. 

It would not be easy to overstate the importance 
to the ultimate success of American liberty and inde- 
pendence, of the course pursued by the Council and 
House of Representatives of Massachusetts during 
the greater part of this long period. Even as early 
as 1757, a controversy sprang up between these bodies 
and Lord Loudoun, the British commander-in-chief, 
in regard to quartering and billeting his troops upon 
the citizens of Boston, which by no means faintly 
foreshadowed the great disputes which WTre to follow. 
In this controversy, the authority of an act of Parlia- 
ment in the colony was boldly, and, it is believed, for 
the first time in our history, denied, and an earnest 
protestation was made that the colonists were entitled 
to all the rights and privileges of Englishmen. 

The provincial governor of that period, however, — 
Thomas Pownall, — was too moderate and too liberal 
in his administration, and was, moreover, too deeply 
interested in the prosecution of those glorious cam- 
paigns of Wolfe and Amherst, in which Massachusetts, 
— and Maine, as a part of Massachusetts, — had so 
large and honorable a share, and by Avhich the French 
poAver on this continent was finally extinguished, to 
provoke any serious breach between himself and the 
Legislative Assemblies. 



19 



But Sir Francis Bernard, his successor, was another 
sort of person, and from his accession in 1760, down to 
the very day on which the last British governor w^as 
finally driven from our shores, there was one con- 
tinued conflict between the legislative and executive 
authorities. 

Governor Bernard, in his very first speech to the 
Assembly, gave a clue to his whole political character 
and course, by alluding to the blessings which the 
Colonies derived " from their subjection to Great 
Britain ; " and the Council, in their reply to this 
speech, furnished a no less distinct indication of the 
spirit with which they were animated, by acknowledg- 
ing how much they owed " to their relatioH to Great 
Britain." 

Indeed, if any one would fully understand the rise 
and progress of revolutionary principles on this con- 
tinent ; if he would understand the arbitrary and 
tyrannical doctrines which Avere asserted by the 
British Ministry, and the prompt resistance and pow- 
erful refutation which they met at the hands of our 
New England patriots, he must read what are called 
" The Massachusetts State Papers," consisting, mainly, 
of the messages of the Governor to the Legislature, 
and the answers of the two branches of the Legislature 
to the Governor, during this period. He will find 
here almost all the great principles and questions of 
that momentous controversy. Trial by Jury, Regula- 
tion of Trade, Taxation without Representation, the 
Stamp Act, the Tea Tax, and the rest, stated and 
argued Avith unsurpassed ability and spirit. It was 
by these State Papers, more, perhaps, than by any 



20 



thing else, tliat the people of that day were instructed 
as to the great rights and interests which were at 
stake, and the popular heart originally and gradually 
prepared for the great issue of Independence. If James 
Otis's argument against Writs of Assistance in 1761, 
(as was said by John Adams,) " breathed into this 
nation the breath of life," few things, if any thing, 
did more to prolong that breath, and sustain that life 
through the trying period of the nation's infancy, 
until it was able to go alone, than the answers of the 
House of Representatives of Massachusetts to the 
insolent assumptions of Bernard and Hutchinson, 
mainly drafted by the same James Otis and Samuel 
Adams, and the answers of the Council, mainly drafted 
by James Botvdoin. 

Of the first-rate part which Bowdoin played, during 
his long service in the Council, we have the fullest 
testimony from the most unquestionable sources. 

Governor Hutchinson, who was himself a principal 
actor in the scenes which he describes, and who will 
not be suspected of any undue partiality to Bowdoin, 
furnishes unequivocal testimony as to his course. 

" In most of the addresses, votes, and other proceed- 
ings in Council, of importance, for several years past, 
(says he in the third volume of his History of Massa- 
chusetts, at the commencement of the year 1766,) the 
Lieutenant Governor, (Hutchinson himself) had been 
employed as the chairman of the committees. Mr. 
Bowdoin succeeded him, and obtained a greater influ- 
ence over the Council than his predecessor ever had ; 
and being united in principle with the leading men in 
the House, measures were concerted between him and 



21 



them, and from this time the Council, in matters 
which concerned the controversy between the Parha- 
ment, and the Colonies, in scarcely any instance 
disagreed with the House." 

Again, under date of 1770, Hutchinson says, " Bow- 
doin was without a rival in the Council, and by the 
harmony and reciprocal communications between him 
and Mr. S. Adams, the measures of Council and House 
harmonized also, and were made reciprocally subser- 
vient each to the other ; so that when the Governor 
met with opposition from the one, he had reason to 
expect like opposition from the other." 

Hutchinson also states, under the same date, that 
" Bowdoin greatly encouraged, if he did not first 
propose, (as a measure of retaliation for the arbitrary 
taxes imposed by Great Britain,) the association for 
leaving off the custom of mourning dress, for the loss 
of deceased friends ; and for iccarinj, on all occasions^ 
the common manufactures of the Country T 

Nor are these unequivocal expressions in the pub- 
lished history of Hutchinson, the only testimony which 
has been borne to Bowdoin's influence in the Council 
and in the Commonwealth. 

Alexander Wedderburn, (afterwards Lord Lough- 
borough.) in his infamous philippic upon Dr. Franklin, 
before the Privy Council in England, styled Bowdoin 
" the leader and manager of the Council in Massachu- 
setts, as Mr. Adams was in the House." 

Sir Francis Bernard, in a private letter to the Earl 
of Hillsborough, then secretary of the Colonies, dated 
3()th November, 1768, held up Mr. Bowdoin to the 
censure of the Ministry, " as having all along taken 



22 

the lead of the Council in their late extraordinary 
proceedings," and, in another letter, as " the perpetual 
president, chairman, secretary, and speaker of the 
Council ; " and Sir Francis gave a practical demon- 
stration of the sense which he entertained of Bowdoin's 
importance to the popular party, hy negativing him as 
a Councillor at the next annual election. To this 
most honorable proscription, by the most tyrannical 
Governor who ever administered the affairs of Massa- 
chusetts, Bowdoin owed that single year of intermission 
in his labors at the Council Board, to which I have 
heretofore alluded. 

But the people of Boston were not in a mood to be 
thus deprived of the patriotic services of a long-tried 
and favorite servant, and, James Otis having at this 
moment withdrawn from public duty, Bowdoin was 
immediately chosen, in his place, a representative of 
Boston. No sooner, however, had he taken his seat 
again in this body, than the House, animated by the 
same spirit with the people of Boston, re-elected him 
to the Council, and Sir Francis Bernard, having in 
the mean time been recalled, Bowdoin's election Avas 
assented to by Governor Hutchinson upon grounds 
even more complimentary to his ability, and not less so 
to his patriotism, than those upon which he had been 
negatived by Sir Francis, — " because he thought his 
influence more prejudicial in the House of Represent- 
atives than at the Council." It was as the successor 
of Bowdoin, on this occasion, that John Adams first 
took his seat in the Legislature of Massachusetts. 

Hutchinson's reason for assenting to Bowdoin's 
re-election to the Council, is given with something 



23 



more of circumstance and amplification, in one of his 
private letters to the Ministry a year or two afterwards. 
In April, 1772, he wrote as follows: "Mr. Hancock 
moved in the House to address the Governor to carry 
the Court to Boston, and to assign no reason except 
the convenience of sitting there, but this was opposed 
by his colleague Adams, and carried against the motion 
by three or four voices only. The same motion was 
made in Council, but opposed by Mr. Bowdoin, who 
is, and has been for several years, the principal sup- 
porter of the opposition to the government. It ivould 
he to no purpose to negative him, for he would he chose 
into the House, and do more mischief there than at the 
Board.'' 

It seems, however, that this reasoning w^as not 
altogether satisfactory to the ministers of the CroA\'n, 
or to the Crown itself, as in 1774 Bowdoin was again 
negatived by General Gage, w ho had succeeded Hutch- 
inson as Governor, and who declared " that he had 
express orders from his Majesty to set aside from that 
board Hon. Mr. Bowdoin, Mr. Dexter, and Mr. Win- 
throp." 

Thus terminated the services of James Bowdoin in 
his Majesty's Council, and within a few months after- 
wards his Majesty's Council itself was swept out of 
existence within the limits of Massachusetts. 

The 17th of June, 1774, was no unfit precursor of 
the 17th of June, 1775. If the latter w^as the date of 
the first great physical contest for liberty, the former 
was the date of one of the earliest civil acts of revolu- 
tion. The House of Representatives of Massachusetts 



24 

then assembled at Salem, having come to a rupture 
with Governor Gage, and foreseeing that they should 
be immediately dissolved, ordered the door of their 
chamber to be locked, and having eifectually barred 
out the Governor's secretary, proceeded, while he was 
actually reading the promulgation for their dissolution 
on the staircase, to do two most important and sig- 
nificant things : the one, to provide for holding a Pro- 
vincial Congress to supply the place of the General 
Court of the Commonwealth ; the other, to elect dele- 
gates to the first Continental Congress at Philadelphia. 
At the head of these delegates stood the name of James 
Bowdoin. The others were Thomas Cushing, Samuel 
Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine. 

Had the condition of Bowdoin's family allowed him 
to proceed to Philadelphia, agreeably to this appoint- 
ment, there can hardly be a doubt that his name would 
now be found where all the world might read it, fore- 
most on the roll of Independence ; but the illness of 
his wife compelled him to stay at home, and that 
proud distinction was reserved for the name of John 
Hancock, who was elected as his substitute. The 
spirit by which he was actuated at this time, is 
abundantly indicated by a letter which he wrote to his 
friend Franklin in London, on the 6th of September, 
1774, just after the first Congress had assembled, and 
Avhich was mainly written as an introduction of Josiah 
Quincy, Jr., then vainly seeking a restoration of his 
health by a foreign voyage. 

. " Six regiments (says he) are now here, and General 
Gage, it is said, has sent for tAvo or three from Canada, 
and expects soon two more from Ireland. Whether 



25 

he will think these, or a much greater number added 
to them, sufficient to enforce submission to the act, 
(for reducing the province to a military government), 
his letters to the Ministry will inform them, and time, 
every body else. In apricum jii'oferet cBtas. A sort of 
enthusiasm seems universally prevalent, and it has 
been greatly heightened by the Canada act for the 
encouraging and establishing Popery. " Pro arts et 
focis, our all is at stake," is the general cry throughout 
the country. Of this I have been in some measure a 
witness, having these two months past been journey- 
ing about th-e Province with Mrs. Bowdoin, on account 
of her health ; the bad state of which has prevented 
my attending the Congress, for which the Assembly 
thought proper to appoint me one of their com- 
mittee." 

Mr. Bowdoin's own health, also, about this time, 
gave way, and soon after assumed a most serious 
aspect. In a letter to John Adams from his wife, 
bearing date June 15th, 1775, and which is among 
the letters of Mrs. Adams recently published by her 
grandson, I find the following passage : " Mr. Bow- 
doin and his lady are at present in the house of Mrs. 
Borland, and are going to Middleborough, to the house 
of Judge Oliver. He, poor gentleman, is so low, that 
I apprehend he is hastening to a house not made with 
hands ; he looks like a mere skeleton, speaks faint and 
low, is racked with a violent cough, and, I think, far 
advanced in consumption. I went to see him last 
Saturday. He is very inquisitive of every person with 
regard to the times ; begged I would let him know of 
the first intelligence I had from you ; is very unable 

4 



26 



to converse by reason of his cough. He rides every 
pleasant day, and has been kind enough to call at the 
door (though unable to get out) several times. He 
says the very name of Hutchinson distresses him. 
S^Deaking of him the other day, he broke out, ' Relig- 
ious rascal ! how I abhor his name ! ' " 

I am the more particular in giving these contempo- 
raneous accounts of the circumstances which prevented 
Bowdoin from taking his seat in the Continental 
Congress, because, in the violence of partisan warfare 
afterwards, his patriotism was impeached on this 
ground. As well might the patriotism of James Otis 
be impeached, because the blows of assassins upon his 
brain, unsettling his reason, compelled him also to 
retire, at this moment, from the service of the country, 
and to leave others to reap a harvest of glory which 
he had sown ! As well might the patriotism of Josiah 
Quincy, Jr. be impeached, because consumption, at 
this moment, had marked him for its prey, and he, too, 
was forced to fly to milder climes, from Avhich he only 
returned to expire within sight of his native shores ! 

The services of Bowdoin, however, were not yet 
destined to be lost to Massachusetts or to the country. 
Momentous responsibilities still awaited him, and the 
partial restoration of his health soon enabled him to 
meet them. 

Indeed, while his health was still failing, he served 
as moderator of a great meeting of the people of Bos- 
ton, in Faneuil Hall, which Avas held to consider the 
demand which had been made upon them by General 
Gage, for the surrender of their arms. The meeting 
was one of the greatest interest and excitement, and 



27 



was protracted through many days. Bowdoin, at the 
close of it, acted as chairman of the committee to 
remonstrate and treat with General Gage upon the 
subject, and I now have in my hand the evidence of 
his success, in an original paper, which is not without 
historical interest, dated Boston, April 27, 1775, in 
the following terms : 

" General Gage gives liberty to the inhabitants to 
remove out of town with their effects, and, in order to 
expedite said removal, informs the inhabitants that 
they may receive passes for that purpose from General 
Robinson, any time after 8 o'clock to-morrow morn- 
ing." 

Such was the only liherty which the people of Boston 
could, in that day, extort from the British commander- 
in-chief, — liherty to abandon their homes and firesides, 
and to seek shelter where they could find it ! Even this, 
however, was a great point gained, and was far better 
than being exposed to the daily insults and depreda- 
tions of a hireling soldiery. I have it under his own 
hand, that it was by his attention to this business, while 
already an invalid, that Bowdoin contracted the serious 
illness described by Mrs. Adams, by reason of which 
his life was at one time despaired of. 

In August of this same year, 1775, a Provincial 
Congress assembled at Watertown, and proceeded, 
under the recommendation of the Continental Con- 
gress, to organize the first regular Government, by 
electing twenty-eight Councillors, not only to act as 
a branch of the legislative body, but to exercise the 
supreme executive authority of the province. Bow- 
doin was elected first on the list, and on the meeting 



28 



of the Board was formally placed at its head, so that 
he should act as President of the Council whenever 
he was present. Though his health was still infirm, 
he instantly accepted the appointment, and soon re- 
paired to his post, and in that capacity he presided, 
from time to time for several years, over the now inde- 
pendent Republic. " This conspicuous act of overt 
treason," (as it was well termed by one who knew the 
meaning of the terms which he used, — Bowdoin's 
distinguished eulogist. Judge Lowell,) this conspicu- 
ous act of overt treason to the British monarch, whose 
Ministry were still exercising " the pageantry of civil 
government within the province," and whose armies 
held possession of the capital almost within sight, 
furnishes ample evidence that Bowdoin shrank from 
no exposure to personal proscrij)tion or peril. 

George Washington had just then assumed the 
command of the American army, encamped around 
Boston. Bowdoin's official position brought him, of 
course, into immediate relation to the commander-in- 
chief, and an intimate and enduring friendship was 
soon formed between them. Many letters of a highly 
confidential character, and a beautiful cane, now in 
my own possession, which was the gift of Bowdoin to 
Washington, and which was returned, as a precious 
memorial to the family, by Mrs. Washington, after her 
husband's death, bear witness to the cordial regard 
which they cherished for each other. 

In the autumn of 1775, the Continental Congress 
despatched a special committee of its members to 
Cambridge, to confer with Washington and the au- 
thorities of the New England States, as to the best 



29 

means of conducting the campaign. Benjamin Frank- 
lin and Benjamin Harrison, (the father of the late 
lamented President of the United States,) were two of 
the committee of Congress. Bowdoin was the chair- 
man of the committee to conduct the conference on 
the part of Massachusetts ; and by them it was agreed 
that an army of twenty-four thousand men should 
be raised for the ensuing year, and that the several 
Colonies should be called on for their respective pro- 
portions of money to meet the expenses of supporting 
them. 

It was about this time that Washington said to 
some timid Whigs in Massachusetts, " You need not 
fear, when you have a Bowdoin at your head." 

It was through the confidential agency of Bowdoin, 
some years afterwards, in 1780, that Washington pro- 
cured a plan of the harbor of Halifax, with the depth 
of the water, and the position of all the military 
works, with a view to its destruction by the French 
fleet. 

Nor may it be uninteresting, or out of place, to 
mention here, that on the night on which Washington 
threw up the redoubts on Dorchester Heights, which 
compelled the British army to evacuate Boston on the 
seventeenth of March, he was accompanied by Bowdoin's 
son, James, (afterwards the patron of the College,) 
a young man then of twenty-two years of age, who, 
after being graduated at Harvard, had gone over to 
England, partly on account of his health, and partly 
to pursue his studies at the University of Oxford, but 
who had hurried back to share the fortunes of his 
native land instantly on the breaking out of hostilities. 



30 



The young Bowdoin also crossed over in the same 
boat with Washington on his entrance into Boston, 
after the departure of the British, and took him to 
dine at his grandfather Erving's, Avhere, we are told, 
the greatest delicacy the town afforded " was only a 
piece of salted beef" 

Mr. Bowdoin, the father, was re-elected to the 
Council in 1776 and 1777, and continued to serve as 
its presiding officer, wdienever his health permitted 
him to attend its meetings, until the summer of 1777, 
when he resigned. 

In 1776, on the receipt of the news of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, he was made chairman of the 
committee to direct and personally superintend its 
proclamation from the balcony of the Old State House 
in Boston. He was, also, the chairman of the com- 
mittee to conduct the affairs of the Commonwealth, 
during the recess of the General Court. 

In 1779, Bowdoin was brought back again into the 
public service, by being elected a delegate from the 
town of Boston to the Convention w^hich framed the 
Constitution of Massachusetts. One attempt to ac- 
complish this work had already been made by the 
Legislature during the previous year, but the plan 
had been rejected by the people. The greatest minds 
of the Commonwealth w^ere now called together to 
repair the failure. Samuel Adams and John Adams, 
Hancock, the elder John Lowell, Theophilus Parsons, 
the elder John Pickering, George Cabot, Nathaniel 
Gorham, James Sullivan, the elder Levi Lincoln, 
Robert Treat Paine, Jonathan Jackson, Henry Hig- 
ginson, Nathaniel Tracy, Samuel Osgood, William 



31 

Gushing, and Caleb Strong, were among the members 
of this Convention. Your own Province of Maine 
was represented, among others, by David Sewall and 
Benjamin Chadbourne. Well might it be said that 
" to this Convention were returned from all parts 
of the Commonwealth, as great a number of men of 
learning, talents and patriotism, as had ever been 
assembled here at any earlier period." It may be 
doubted, whether any later period has ever witnessed 
its equal. Of this Convention, Bowdoin was the 
President. 

His position as presiding officer, however, did not 
exempt him from the more active duties of member- 
ship, and, during the long recess of the Convention, 
he served as chairman of the select committee, by 
which the original draft of the Constitution was di- 
gested and prepared. His friend and eulogist, Judge 
Lowell, who was himself second to no one in that 
Convention, either for the zeal or the ability which 
he brought to the work, says of Bowdoin, that " it is 
owing to the hints which he occasionally gave, and 
the part which he took with the committee who 
framed the plan, that some of ihe most admired 
sections in the Constitution of this State appear in 
their present form ; " and he adds, " this assembly of 
wise men carried home with them such impressions of 
his character as an able and virtuous statesman, that 
they retained the highest respect and esteem for him 
till his death." 

At the organization of the government of the Com- 
monwealth under this new Constitution, John Hancock 
was elected to the chief magistracy. There having 



32 

been no choice of a Lieutenant Governor by the 
people, the Legislature, on their assembling, elected 
Bowdoin to that office. They, also, simultaneously 
elected him a Senator for the County of Suffolk, 
leaving it optional with himself to decide in which 
capacity he would serve the State, and intimating, 
certainly, in the most complimentary manner, their 
unwillingness that the State should be deprived of his 
services altogether. Bowdoin, however, declined both 
these offices, as he did, also, the appointment of agent 
to negotiate a loan in Europe, which, about this time, 
was offered to him. But in the subsequent winter he 
accepted an appointment from the Legislature, in 
company with the Justices of the Supreme Court, the 
Attorney General, and Mr. John Pickering, " to revise 
the laws in force in the State, to select, abridge, alter, 
and digest them, so as to be accommodated to the 
present Government." I have seen ample evidence, in 
his private papers, of the labor which he bestowed on 
the duties of this distinguished and most responsible 
commission. 

In 1782, Bowdoin was chosen a representative from 
Boston, but declined the office. 

In January, 1785, Hancock resigned his place as 
Chief Magistrate of Massachusetts. At the ensuing 
April election there was no choice by the people, but 
on the meeting of the Legislature in May, Bowdoin 
was elected Governor, by the Senate, out of the candi- 
dates sent up to that body by the House of Represen- 
tatives. 

It was during the popular canvass preceding this 
election, that a charge was brought against Bowdoin 



33 

that he was in British interest and nncler British 
influence. In these latter days, such a charge, against 
whomsoever it were arrayed, could excite little sur- 
prise. It is the penalty of modern public life, to be 
abused. Not to be the subject of some false report, 
of some slanderous charge, of some calumnious impu- 
tation, would seem almost to imply that one was too 
insignificant to attract notice. So uniformly does 
abuse or misrepresentation follow any considerable 
fame, that a public man is almost tempted to exclaim 
in the words of an old ballad, — 

" Liars will lee on full guid men 
Sae will they do on me ; 
I wad'na wish to be the man, 
That liars on wad'na lee." 

But that one who had been so early and ardent an 
opposer of British oppression and British dominion, 
and who, as we have seen, had co-operated personally 
and prominently in almost all the measures by which 
that aggression had been successfully resisted, and 
that dominion finally thrown off", should now so soon 
have been subjected to such an imputation upon his 
patriotism, and such an impeachment of his integrity, 
must certainly astonish every one who has not become 
familiar with the habitual disingenuousness and un- 
scrupulousness of modern partisan warfare. 

The only points relied upon to give color to this 
infamous accusation were, first, Bowdom's failure to 
attend the Continental Congress in 1774, when, as we 
have sufficiently seen, the illness of his wife, and the 
critical condition of his own health, detained him at 

5 



34 

home; and, second, the marriage of Bowdoin's only 
daughter with Sir John Temple. 

The late estimable and distinguished author of the 
" Familiar Sketches of Public Characters," which are 
believed to be generally as correct, as they certainly 
are spirited and interesting, says that Bowdoin was 
suspected of English partialities, " because an English- 
man who bore a title had become his son-in-law," 

Now the fact is, that John Temple was a Boston 
boy, born at Noddle's Island, now East Boston, of 
parents who had long resided in this country, and 
that he did not inherit his baronetcy from his great 
grandfather until nearly eighteen months after this 
election was over. He had been, moreover, a thorough 
Whig during the whole of our Revolution, and had 
paid the penalty of his opposition to the British 
Ministry by the loss of more than one office, of which 
the emoluments were in the last degree necessary to 
his support. It was of Temple that Arthur Lee, then 
in London, wrote to Samuel Adams, Dec. 22, 1773, 
" There is no man more obnoxious to Hillsborough, 
Bernard, Knox, and all that tribe of determined 
enemies to truth, to virtue, liberty, and America." 

It is, indeed, not a little curious, that, while in 
1785, Bowdoin was charged with being in British 
interest, on account of his connection with Temple, in 
1770, Bowdoin's original opposition to Great Britain 
was attributed to the very same cause. " During the 
administration of Shirley and Pownall, (says Governor 
Hutchinson in his third volume,) Bowdoin was con- 
sidered rather as a favorer of the prerogative, than of 
the opposition to it. But Mr. Temple, the Surveyor 



35 



General of the Customs, having married Mr. Bow- 
doin's daughter, and having differed with Governor 
Bernard, and connected himself with Mr. Otis and 
others in the opposition, Mr, Bowdoin, from that time, 
entered into the like connections." 

Hutchinson is still more explicit upon this point in 
some of his private letters. In a letter to Commo- 
dore (afterwards Admiral) Gambler, dated 7th May, 
1772, he says: "Of the two you mentioned, one in 
the Common and the other near it, (Bowdoin's elegant 
mansion near the Common is still freshly remembered,) 
I have found the first pliable, and have made great use 
of him, and expect to make more ; the other is envious, 
and with dark, secret plottings endeavors to distress 
Government ; and, although I am upon terms of civil- 
ity with him, yet when the faction in the House have 
any point to carry, they are sure of his support in 
Council, and he is as obstinate as a mule. I do not 
find the advice, that his son-in-law is like to be pro- 
vided for in England, has any effect upon him. If I 
see any chance of bringing him over, and making him 
a friend to Government, I will try it ; in the mean- 
time, I will bear with his opposition as I have done 
for several years past. This inter nosy 

It seems thus, that Hutchinson was about to make 
a trial upon Bowdoin's patriotism, with a view of see- 
ing if there was " any chance of bringing him over, 
and making him a friend to Government." And in a 
letter to Sir Francis Bernard, dated 25 th August, 
1772, four months afterwards, we have some glimpses 
of the result of the attempt. 

" Before Commodore Gambler sailed, (he says,) he 



36 



hinted to me the same thing he did to yon after his 
arrival in England. I thought it was suggested to 

him by , and I took it to be only his opinion of 

the effect such an expectation might have, and I have 
no reason to think Mr. B. was privy to the suggestion. 
His conduct in Council is very little different from 
what it was in your administration, and he runs into 
the foolish notions of Adams & Co., and when Gov- 
ernment is the subject, talks their jargon. On other 
occasions, we are just within the bounds of decency. 
One would have thought the unexpected favors shown 
to his son-in-law would have softened him. I don't 
know but he may have been rather more cautious in 
his language, but he joins in the same measures." 

Bowdoin himself gave the best evidence, not many 
months afterwards, with what success he had been 
approached, and how far he had even become " more 
cautious in his language," in the prompt and powerful 
stand which he took against Hutchinson's elaborate 
message to the Legislature, upholding the power of 
Parliament over the Colonies ; in regard to which, 
Hutchinson wrote to General Gage, on the 7th of 
March, 1773,^ — "The Council would have acquiesced, 
if Mr. Bowdoin had not persuaded them that he could 
defend Lord Chatham's doctrine, that Parliament had 
no right of taxation ; but by his repugnant arguments 
he has exposed himself to contempt." 

A copy of these " repugnant arguments " is in my 
possession, in Bowdoin's hand-writing, as they are 
printed among the Massachusetts State Papers ; and 
no one can read them without feeling that, if they 
exposed him to the " contempt " of this pliant tool 



37 

of royalty, they have entitled him to the respect and 
gratitude of every American patriot. The paper is, 
unquestionably, among the ablest compositions to 
which the controversies of that day gave occasion, and 
was the immediate cause of Bowdoin's being negatived, 
at his next election to the Council, by the express order 
of his Majesty. 

Temple, it appears, had been appointed in December, 
1771, surveyor-general of the customs in England. 
He had been refused all further employment in Ame- 
rica on the ground of his known attachment to the 
cause of his native country, the king himself having 
signified to Lord North that he must not be suffered 
to return to the colonies in any public capacity. But 
his zeal for the interests of the colonies could not thus 
be extinguished; and in 1774, he was summarily 
removed from office, for reasons which are set forth in 
a paper bearing his own signature, which was addressed 
to the government of Massachusetts in 1791, and which 
begins as follows : 

" Dr. Franklin and Mr. Temple were, in the year 
177-1, upon one and the same day, and for one and the 
same cause, dismissed from the several employments 
they held under the crown of Great Britain ; expressly 
for their attachment to the American cause ; and par- 
ticularly for their having obtained and transmitted to 
the State of Massachusetts, certain original letters and 
papers, which first discovered, with certainty, the per- 
fidious plans then machinating against the freedom 
and happiness of the then Colonies, now United States 
in North America; Mr. Temple, by such dismission, 
lost upwards of a thousand pounds sterling per annum. 



38 

besides several very honorary appointments under the 
crown; Dr. Franklin's loss was about five hundred 
pounds a year." 

This distinct and public declaration during the life- 
time of Franklin, corroborated as it is by a previous 
and private communication to John Adams, removes 
all doubt as to the fact, that it was through Temple's 
co-operation with Franklin that the famous Hutchinson 
letters were sent over to this country, and furnishes 
another proof that his employment and salaries abroad 
had, in no degree, diminished his interest in the cause 
of American Liberty. 

It would be quite out of place to follow the 
course and character of Sir John Temple further on 
this occasion. I have said enough to show how 
utterly groundless were any imputations upon Bow- 
doin's patriotism, arising out of his connection with 
Temple. I have said enough to prove how justly it 
was said of Bowdoin, at his death, — " He was in 
every sense a patriot. He connected himself with 
those who were determined not to be slaves. It was 
in his power to have made any terms for himself, if he 
could have deserted his principles ; but firm and incor- 
ruptible, he put every thing at hazard." 

The condition of Massachusetts and of the nation 
at large, when Bowdoin assumed the Chief Magistracy 
of the Commonwealth, (if there was any thing which 
could be called a nation in 1785,) was most critical. 
Both were overwhelmed with the debts of the revolu- 
tion, and no effective system of finance had been 
established for their discharge. Indeed, the resources 
of the people were already utterly exhausted, and 



39 

a wide-spread bankruptcy seemed almost inevitable. 
Bowdoin, however, stood forth, in his first address to 
the Legislature, as the stern advocate of supporting the 
credit of the State at all costs, and as the uncompro- 
mising opponent of every idea of repudiation. " Lately 
emerged, (said he,) from a bloody and expensive war, 
a heavy debt upon us in consequence of it, — our 
finances deranged and our credit to re-establish, — it 
will require time to remove these difiiculties. The 
removal of them must be effected in the same way a 
prudent individual, in like circumstances, would adopt ; 
by retrenching unnecessary expenses, adopting a strict 
economy, providing means of lessening his debt, duly 
paying the interest of it, and manifesting to his credit- 
ors and the world, that in all his transactions he is 
guided by the principles of honor and strict hon- 
esty. In this way, and in this only, public credit can 
be maintained or restored; and when governments, 
by an undeviating adherence to these principles, shall 
have firmly established it, they will have the satisfac- 
tion to see that they can obtain loans in preference to 
all borrowers whatever." 

In this same first address to the General Court, 
Bowdoin came forward, also, as the ardent adviser of 
an enlargement of the powers of the Continental Con- 
gress, with a view to the regulation of commerce with 
foreign nations. 

" The state of our foreign trade, (said he,) which 
has given so general an uneasiness, and the operation 
of which, through the extravagant importation and 
use of foreign manufactures, has occasioned so large a 
balance against us, demands a serious consideration. 



i 

40 » 

V, 

" To satisfy that balance, our money is exported ; 
which, with all the means of remittance at present in 
our power, falls very short of a suihciency. 

" Those means, which have been greatly lessened 
by the war, are gradually enlarging ; but they cannot 
soon increase to their former amplitude, so long as 
Britain and other nations continue the commercial 
systems they have adopted since the war. Those 
nations have an undoubted right to regulate their trade 
with us, and to admit into their ports, on their own 
terms, the vessels and cargoes that go from the United 
States, or to refuse an admittance; their own interest 
or their sense of it, being the only principle to dictate 
those regulations, where no treaty of commerce is 
subsisting. 

" The United States have the same right, and can, 
and ought to regulate their foreign trade on the same 
principle ; but it is a misfortune, that Congress have 
not yet been authorized for that purj^ose by all the 
States. If there be any thing wanting on the part of 
this State to complete that authority, it lies with you, 
gentlemen, to bring it forward and mature it ; and, 
until Congress shall ordain the necessary regulations, 
you will please to consider w^hat further is needful to 
be done on our part, to remedy the evils of which the 
merchant, the tradesman, and manufacturer, and indeed 
every other description of persons among us, so justly 
complain." 

" It is of great importance, (he continues,) and the 
happiness of the United States depends upon it, that 
Congress should be vested with all the powers neces- 
sary to preserve the Union, to manage the general 



41 



concerns of it, and secure and promote its common 
interest. That interest, so far as it is dependent on a 
commercial intercourse with foreign nations, the Con- 
federation does not sufficiently provide for ; and this 
State, and the United States in general, are now expe- 
riencing, by the operation of their trade with some of 
these nations, particularly Great Britain, the want of 
such a provision. ***** 

" This matter, gentlemen, merits your attention ; 
and if you think that Congress should be vested with 
ampler powers, and that special delegates from the 
States should be convened to settle and define them, 
you will take the necessary measures for obtaining 
such a Convention or Congress, whose agreement, 
when confirmed by the States, would ascertain these 
powers." 

Thus again did Bowdoin, in 1785, propose as the 
only mode of securing our national prosperity, and 
counteracting the pernicious effects of the restrictive 
policy of Great Britain, the same remedy which he 
had declared necessary in 1754, against the Cape 
Breton trade of the French — a general union of the 
Colonies, with the power of regulating trade. 

His views were not now lost upon those to whom 
they were addressed. The Legislature of the Com- 
monwealth cordially responded to them, and passed 
strong resolutions, bearing date July 1, 1785, recom- 
mending a Convention of Delegates from all the States, 
for the purpose of revising the articles of Confedera- 
tion, and enlarging the powers of Congress. These 
resolutions were communicated to Congress and the 
several States. Virginia passed similar, resolutions in 

6 



42 



January, 1786 ; in the following September, the first 
meeting of delegates was held at Annapolis ; and in 
May, 1787, the Convention assembled at Philadelphia, 
by which the Constitution of the United States was 
finally formed. 

The late Mr. Alden Bradford, whose name has so 
many titles to our respectful remembrance, does not 
hesitate to assert, in his History of Massachusetts, in 
view of the facts which I have stated, that Governor 
Bowdoin " is entitled to the honor of having first 
urged the enlargement of the powers of Congress for 
regulating commerce with foreign countries, and for 
raising a revenue from it to support the public credit." 

I need not say how gladly I would vindicate the 
Bowdoin title to this distinction. He who can right- 
fully claim it, needs no other title to the eternal grati- 
tude of his country. The man, upon whose tombstone 
it may be truly written, " It was by him that the great 
idea of our glorious Federal Constitution was first con- 
ceived, and first urged," — need not envy the proudest 
epitaph in Westminster Abbey or the Pantheon. To 
him the rarely interrupted peace, the unparalleled 
progress and prosperity, the firm and cordial union 
of this mighty nation, for sixty years past, and as we 
hope and believe, for sixty times sixty years to come, 
will bear grateful testimony ! To him, the first great 
example of successful Constitutional Republican Gov- 
ernment, will acknowledge a perpetual debt ! Around 
his memory, the hopes of civil liberty throughout the 
world will weave an unfading chaplet ! 

Such an honor, however, is too high to be lightly 
appropriated tp any one man. I know the danger 



43 

of setting up pretensions of priority in great ideas, 
whether of state policy, philosophical theory, scientific 
discovery, or mechanical invention. It was claimed 
for Patrick Henry, that he was the first to exclaim, 
under the sting of British oppression in 1774, " We 
must fight ; " but it has since been clearly proved, 
that he only echoed the exclamation of Joseph Haw- 
ley of Massachusetts, communicated to him by John 
Adams. 

The first public proposal of a General Convention 
to remodel the Confederacy, has been traced by Mr. 
Madison to one, whose family name would thus seem 
to be associated both with the earliest suggestion, and 
with the latest and ablest defence of the Constitution, 
— Pelatiah Webster, — a correspondent and friend of 
Governor Bowdoin, who brought it forward in a 
pamphlet published in 1781. This was followed by 
resolutions in favor of it, passed by the Legislature of 
New York, on motion of General Schuyler, in 1782. 
Hamilton declared himself in favor of the plan, in 
Congress, in 1783. Richard Henry Lee, in a letter to 
Mr. Madison, urged it in 1784. But no one can doubt 
that the earnest official recommendation of Bowdoin, 
and the strong resolutions of Massachusetts, (then 
one of the three great States of the Confederacy,) in 
1785, were most important steps in this momentous 
Federal movement. They preceded, by more than a 
year, the resolutions of Virginia, to which so deserved 
a prominence has always been given, and they should 
not be suffered to be omitted, as they too often hith- 
erto have been, from the history of the rise and 
progress of the Constitution of the United States. 



44 



It may be doubted, indeed, whether any one was 
an earlier or more intelligent advocate than Bowdoin, 
of the great commercial principle which the Consti- 
tution was primarily established to vindicate. The 
necessity of regulating the trade and navigation of the 
United States, with a view to counteracting the restric- 
tive policy of Great Britain and other nations, and of 
protecting the industry and labor of our own people, 
was illustrated and enforced by him on every oc- 
casion. 

Under his auspices, the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts passed an act for this purpose on their own 
responsibility, to cease, of course, whenever Congress 
should be vested with power to take the subject under 
national control. 

Under his advice, an act laying additional duties 
of import and excise was also passed by the State 
Legislature, in relation to which, at the subsequent 
session, in October, 1785, Governor Bowdoin used 
language in his message, which shows both the extent 
of his information, and the soundness of his views 
upon these commercial subjects : 

" As one intention of the act (says he) was to 
encourage our OAvn manufactures, by making such a 
distinction in the duties upon them and upon foreign 
manufactures, as to give, in regard to price, a clear 
preference to the former, you will please to consider, 
in revising the act, whether that intention be in fact 
answered with respect to some of them. I would 
particularly instance in the manufacture of loaf sugar, 
which, at a time when we were under the dominion of 
Great Britain, was for a while very profitably carried 



45 



on here ; but by the British Parliament giving a large 
bounty on the exportation of it from thence, and this 
with a view of putting a stop to our manufacturing it, 
it was imported here so cheap, as effectually to answer 
that purpose. The bounty, as I am informed, being 
still continued, the duties on each of these manufac- 
tures, and on foreign in general, should be so regu- 
lated, as to give a decided preference in favor of our 
own ; and a like attention should be also had in refer- 
ence to all our manufactures." 

In a message of February 8, 1786, he calls upon 
the Legislature to do something for the encouragement 
of the manufacture of iron : 

" Mr. John Noyes, (says he,) who has lately returned 
hither from Europe, was with me a few days ago, and 
acquainted me, that while there, he employed the great- 
est part of his time in endeavoring to inform himself in 
several branches of manufacture in iron ; that he had 
gained a thorough knowledge of those branches ; and 
that if he and his partner. Colonel Revere, could 
obtain sufficient encouragement from the Legislature, 
they would erect works for carrying them on to some 
considerable extent: — that he had, also, a perfect know- 
ledge of the machines used in Europe in manufacturing 
iron and steel, and was well informed in the construc- 
tion and use of the new-invented steam engine, very 
necessary in those operations, and which may be 
advantageously employed in many others. 

" In consequence of this conversation, I yesterday 
received a letter from them to the same purpose, 
which, with a letter to me from the Hon. Mr. Adams, 
our Mmister in London, recommending Mr. Noyes 



46 

and his project of introducing some new manufactures, 
will be communicated to you. 

" Circumstanced as we are at present, it is highly 
necessary we should encourage every useful and prac- 
ticable manufacture, especially that of iron, which, in 
point of usefulness and practicability, may vie with 
any. 

" As this manufacture, connected with the proposed 
improvements upon it, may be extensively beneficial to 
the Commonwealth, I do with great earnestness re- 
commend the proposal for its establishment to your 
favorable consideration." 

In another of his messages, (21st Feb. 1786,) he 
calls the attention of the Legislature to the importance 
of doing something for the wool growers and the 
woollen manufacturers of the State : 

" The extravagant importation of foreign manirfac- 
tures, (says he,) since the conclusion of the war, has 
greatly injured our own, particularly those in wool. 

" The quantity of woollens imported, their superior 
fabric, and the cheapness of them, have not only in a 
great measure put a stop to our looms, and to the 
several other modes of manufacturing our wool, but 
have thereby been a principal cause of the decrease of 
sheep in this Commonwealth. This decrease, as we 
are now necessitated to manufacture for ourselves, is 
universally felt and regretted ; and it has become 
necessary to apply some remedy to this evil, which for 
several years has been a growing one. You will 
therefore, allow me, gentlemen, to recommend to you, 
to apply some effectual remedy accordingly ; and at 
the same time to project some method, by which we 



47 

may obtain models of several machines, or the ma- 
chines themselves, lately invented for manufacturing 
woollen cloths, by the use of which there would be 
a saving of much labor and expense, and the cloth 
would be manufactured in a superior manner." 

In still another message of the same date, he says, 
" As the encouragement of every useful manufacture 
in the Commonwealth has now become necessary, it is 
my duty to mention to you a very important one, — so 
important to us as a free and independent people, that 
our existence as such may depend on the establishing 
it among ourselves ; I mean the manufacture of gun- 

It is not for me, on this occasion, to discuss the 
value of what has been called " the American System." 
Nor would I, at any time, disturb the laurels of those 
among the living, to whom its paternity has been 
ascribed. But if any one of later years is privileged 
to wear the title of the father of this system, I think 
I may safely assert, upon the evidence which I have 
now furnished, the unquestionable claim of Governor 
Bowdoin to be remembered as its grandfather. 

Certainly, if any one desires to know for what object 
the re^isal of the old articles of confederation was 
demanded by at least one of its earliest and most 
prominent advocates in New England ; if any one 
desires to understand what was the original Massachu- 
setts meaning of the constitutional phrase " Congress 
shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign 
nations;" he may read it in language which cannot be 
mistaken, in these messages of Governor Bowdoin. 

There was something, however, of ominous signifi- 



48 



cance in his call upon tlie Legislature at this moment 
to encourage the manulacture of (juxpowiier. The day 
"vvas rapidly approaching, Avhen Massachusetts was 
about to require a supply of that article for the first 
time, and, I pray God, for the last time, in her history 
as an independent Commonwealth, for the most de- 
plorable of all occasions. 

Bowdoin was re-elected to the Chief Magistracy, in 
April, 1786, by a very large majority of the popular 
votes, when he again, in his openmg address, pressed 
upon the Legislature the paramount importance of 
making provision for sustaining the public credit. 
Already, however, the discontents at the heavy burden 
of taxation had swollen to a formidable height ; and, 
before the close of the year, they had broken out into 
an open insurrection against the legal processes of 
collection. The courts of justice were systematically 
interrupted in their sessions, and the insurgents were 
led along from step to step, until they found them- 
selves arrayed in arms against the constituted authori- 
ties of the State. 

The exigency was, uideed, a momentous one. For 
the first time, and while the cement by which it was 
held too:ether was still grreen and unhardened, the 
fabric of our fi-ee institutions was to be put to the test 
of a forcible assault. The public Credit, the Inde- 
pendence of the Judiciary, the Authority of the 
Executive, the Supremacy of the Laws, the Capacity 
of the People for Self-govenmient, — all, all were at 
stake. Had " Shays' Eebellion," as it is called, been 
triumphant, it is hardly possible to exaggerate the 
danger in which our whole American Kepublican 



49 



system would have been involved. Had an example 
of successful repudiation at once of debt, of law, and 
of all government, been given at so early a day after 
our independence, and in so leading a Commonwealth 
as Massachusetts, no one can tell into what volcanic 
vortex our whole continent would have been plunged, 
or how far we should have escaped the fate of the 
Spanish Colonies at the South, in being the subject 
of one unceasing series of political convulsions and 
revolutions. 

Every where the faces of the friends of freedom 
gathered blackness at the prospect. Even Washing- 
ton could scarcely hold fast to the great principle 
which had never before failed him, not to despair of 
the Republic. In a letter to James Madison, of 
Nov. 6, 1786, he says : " No morn ever dawned more 
favorably than ours did ; and no day was ever more 
clouded than the present. * * * Without an 
alteration in our political creed, the superstructure we 
have been seven years in raising, at the expense of so 
much treasure and blood, must fall. We are fast 
verging to anarchy and confusion. 

" A letter which I have received from General 
Knox, who had just returned from Massachusetts, 
whither he had been sent by Congress in consequence 
of the commotions in that State, is replete with 
melancholy accounts of the temper and designs of a 
considerable part of the people. Among other things 
he says: 'Their creed is, that the property of the 
United States has been protected from the confiscation 
of Britain by the joint exertions of all, and therefore 
ought to be the common property of all; and he that 



50 



attempts opposition to this creed, is an enemy to equi- 
ty and justice, and ought to be swept off from the face 
of the earth.' Again, ' they are determined to annihi- 
late all debts, public and private, and have agrarian 
laws, which are easily effected by the means of un- 
funded paper money, which shall be a tender in all 
cases whatever.' * * * * How melancholy is 
the reflection, that in so short a time we should have 
made such large strides towards fulfilling the predic- 
tions of our transatlantic foes ! — ' Leave them to them- 
selves, and their government will soon dissolve.' Will 
not the wise and good strive hard to avert this evil 1 
Or will their supineness suffer ignorance, and the arts 
of self-interested, designing, disaffected, and desperate 
characters, to involve this great country in wretched- 
ness and contempt 1 " 

" It is with the deepest and most heartfelt concern, 
(writes Washington soon after to General Humphreys,) 
that I perceive by some late paragraphs extracted 
from the Boston papers, that the insurgents of Massa- 
chusetts, far from being satisfied with the redress of- 
fered by their General Court, are still acting in open 
violation of law and government, and have obliged the 
Chief Magistrate, in a decided tone, to call upon the 
militia of the State to support the Constitution, Wliat, 
gracious God ! is man, that there should be such in- 
consistency and perfidiousness in his conduct 1 It was 
but the other day, that we were shedding our blood to 
obtain the Constitutions under which we now live, — 
Constitutions of our own choice and making, — and 
now we are unsheathing the sword to overturn them. 
The thing is so unaccountable, that I hardly know 



51 



how to realize it, or to persuade myself that I am not 
under the illusion of a dream." 

I might cite a hundred other evidences of the 
alarm which this rebellion in Massachusetts excited 
throughout the Union. ' Proximiis ardet Ucalegon! 
No one knew whose house would catch next, or how 
soon the whole nation might be involved in the flames 
of civil war. It was regarded, like the late rising of 
the Communists and Red Republicans of Paris, as 
menacing the very existence of the system against 
which it was aimed, and as threatening the whole 
experiment of free government with explosion and 
failure. 

" These combinations, (says Judge Lowell,) were 
extensive and formidable, and perhaps there was a 
time in which it was uncertain, whether even a major- 
ity of the people were not at least in a disposition not 
to oppose the progress of insurgency." Well did he 
add, that " Bowdoin was at this time in a situation to 
try the fortitude and resources of any man." 

Among other difficulties with which he had to 
contend, was that of an empty treasury and a pros- 
trate credit. I have myself heard the late venerable 
Jacob Kuhn say, that having occasion to buy fuel 
for the winter session of the Legislature in 1786, and 
there being no money in hand to pay the bills, he 
could find no one who would furnish it on the credit 
of the Commonwealth, and he was obliged to pledge 
his own personal responsibility for the amount ! The 
credit of this humble but honest and patriotic Messen- 
ger of the General Court was thus better than that of 
the Commonwealth itself ! But an appeal was made, 



52 



where it has never been made in vain, to the mer- 
chants and other men of property of Boston, and was 
seconded by the liberal example of Bowdoin himself, 
and funds enough were speedily raised, by voluntary 
subscription, for carrying on the measures of defence, 
which had now become necessary for the safety of the 
State. A special session of the Legislature was con- 
vened ; the militia in all parts of the Commonwealth 
were called on to hold themselves in readiness for 
service, and many of them summoned at once into the 
field ; and after a few months of vigilant and vigorous 
exercise of the whole civil and military poAver which 
the Constitution and the laws intrusted to him, Bow- 
doin had the unspeakable happiness to find Order 
again established. Peace restored, and Liberty and 
Law triumphantly reconciled. 

He had excellent counsellors about him, and gallant 
officers under him, in this emergency ; and he knew 
how to employ them and trust them. The brave and 
admirable Benjamin Lincoln, to whom the chief com- 
mand was assigned, and who, in conducting the 
principal expedition against the insurgents, gathered 
fresh laurels for a brow already thickly bound with 
the victorious wreaths of the Revolution ; the gallant 
John Brooks, afterwards the distinguished and j)0];)ular 
governor of the State ; the chivalrous Cobb, who, 
being at once chief justice of the Bristol courts and 
commander of the Bristol militia, declared he " would 
sit as a judge, or die as a general ; " the prudent yet 
fearless Shepard ; these, and many more whom the 
accomplished Minot, in his histor)^ of the rebellion, 
has sufficiently designated, rendered services on the 



53 

occasion which will never be forgotten. But nobody 
has ever doubted that, to the lofty principle, the calm 
prudence, the wise discretion, and the indomitable 
firmness of Bowdoin, the result was primarily due, 
and that his name is entitled to go down in the history 
of the country, as pre-eminently the leader in that first 
great vindication of Law and Order within the limits 
our American Kepublic. 

In the course which he was obliged to pursue, how- 
ever, for this end, cause of offence could hardly fail of 
being given to large masses of the people. An idea, 
too, extensively prevailed, that Bowdom would be 
sterner than another in enforcing the punishment of 
the guilty parties, and stricter than another in exacting 
the payment of the taxes still due. During the latter 
part of the year, too, the Legislature had passed a bill 
reducing the governor's salary ; and Bowdoin, holding 
this measure to be inconsistent at once with the true 
spirit and with the express letter of the Constitution, 
had not scrupled to veto it. He clearly foresaw that 
this act would conspire with other circumstances in 
preventing his re-election to the executive chair. He 
resolved, however, not to shrink from the canvass, 
nobly declaring, that " his inclination would lead 
him to retirement, but if it should be thought he 
could be further serviceable to the Commonwealth, he 
would not desert it." Defendi rempublicam adolescens ; 
non deseram senex. 

His predictions were realized, and at the next elec- 
tion, Hancock, having accepted a nomination in 
opposition to him, was again chosen Governor of 
Massachusetts. It would have been an ample com- 



54 

pensation for any degree of mortification which Bow- 
doin could have felt at this defeat, could he have 
known, as he doubtless did before his death, and as is 
well understood now, that the ratification of the Fede- 
ral Constitution by the Convention of Massachusetts 
was unquestionably brought about by this concession 
on the part of his political friends to the demands of 
their opponents. He would have counted no sacrifice 
of himself too great to accomplish such a result. 

But Bowdoin was to be permitted to aid in the 
accomplishment of that result in a more direct and 
agreeable manner. Once more, and for the last time, 
he was to be employed in the service of the Common- 
wealth and the country. A Constitution, embodying 
the great principle of the Regulation of Trade hy a 
General TJnion^ was at length framed by the National 
Convention at Philadelphia, and submitted to the adop- 
tion of the people. The Massachusetts Convention 
assembled to consider it in January, 1788. Bowdoin 
was a delegate from Boston, and had the satisfaction 
of finding his son by his side, as a delegate from 
Dorchester. Both gave their ardent and unhesitating 
support to the new instrument of government, and 
both made formal speeches in its favor. 

The elder Bowdoin concluded his remarks with a 
sentiment, which Avill still strike a chord in every true 
American heart : — 

" If the Constitution should be finally accepted and 
established, it will complete the temple of American 
liberty, and, like the keystone of a grand and magnifi- 
cent arch, be the bond of union to keep all the parts 
firm and compacted together. May this temple, sacred 



55 



to liberty and virtue, — sacred to justice, the first and 
o-reatest political virtue, — and built upon tbe broad 
and solid foundation of perfect union, — be dissoluble 
only by the dissolution of nature! and may this Con 
vention have the distinguished honor of erecting one 
of its pillars on that lasting foundation ! " 

It was Bowdoin's happiness to live to see this wish 
accomplished, to see the Federal Constitution adopted 
and the Government organized under it, and to wel- 
come beneath his own roof his illustrious friend. 
General Washington, on his visit to Boston in 1789, 
as the First President of the United States. 

He was now, however, a private citizen, and had 
transferred his attention again to those philosophical 
pursuits, which had engaged him in his earliest man- 
hood. Indeed, his interest in literature and science 
had never been suspended. A little volume of verses, 
published anonymously by him in 1759, proves that 
poetry as well as philosophy was an object of his 
youthful homage. He was long connected with the 
Government of Harvard College, and always manifest- 
ed the most earnest devotion to her welfare. In 1780, 
he was foremost among the founders of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was their Presi- 
dent from their first organization to his death. To 
the transactions of the Academy he contributed sev- 
eral elaborate Memoirs, in regard to which I borrow 
the language of the accomplished Lowell, who, at 
the request of the Academy, pronounced the eulogy 
from which I have already repeatedly quoted, and 
who, undoubtedly, gave utterance to the judgment of 
his learned associates. 



56 

" The first, (says he,) was an ingenious and perspic- 
uous vindication of Sir Isaac Newton's Theory of 
Light from objections which Dr. Franklin had raised. 
The two others were also on the subject of Light ; 
and an attempt to account for the manner in which 
the waste of matter in the sun and fixed stars, by the 
constant efilux of light from them, is repaired. 

" These Memoirs (he adds) afi'ord conclusive evi- 
dence that Mr. Bowdoin was deeply conversant in the 
principles of natural philosophy ; and though the 
latter memoir suggests a theory which may be liable 
to some objections, yet the novelty of it and the inge- 
nious manner in which he has considered it, discovers 
an inquisitive mind, and a boldness of ideas beyond 
those, who, though learned in the knowledge of others, 
are too feeble to venture on new and unexplored paths 
of science." 

The correspondence between Bowdoin and Franklin 
on questions of science was now renewed, and it will 
be interesting, I am sure, to follow them once more, 
for a single moment, in some of the speculations of 
their closing years. " Our ancient correspondence 
(says Franklin, in a letter dated 31st May, 1788) 
used to have something philosophical in it. As you 
are now free from public cares, and I expect to be so 
in a few months, why may we not resume that kind of 
correspondence '? " And he then proceeds to suggest 
some fifteen or twenty questions, relating to magnetism 
and the theory of the earth, for their mutual consider- 
ation and discussion. Among others, he inquires, 
" May not a magnetic power exist throughout our 
system, perhaps through all systems, so that if a man 



57 



could make a voyage in the starry regions, a compass 
might be of use 1 " 

Bowdoin, in his reply of June 28, 1788, after ex- 
pressing his doubt whether Franklin would even yet 
be spared from the public service, proceeds to say, — 
" If, however, you choose to recede from politics, it 
will be a happy circumstance in a philosophical view, 
as we may expect many advantages to be derived from 
it to science. I have read, (says he,) and repeatedly 
read, your ingenious qvieries concerning the cause of 
the earth's magnetism and polarity, and those relating 
to the theory of the earth. By the foiiner, you seem 
to suppose that a similar magnetism and polarity may 
take place, not only throughout the whole solar system, 
but all other systems, so that a compass might be use- 
ful, if a voyage in the starry regions were practicable. 
I thank you for this noble and highly pleasurable sug- 
gestion, and have already enjoyed it. I have pleased 
myself with the idea that, when we drop this heavy, 
earth-attracted body, we shall assume an ethereal one ; 
and, in some vehicle proper for the purpose, perform 
voyages from planet to planet, with the utmost ease 
and expedition, and with much less uncertainty than 
voyages are 23erformed on our ocean from port to port. 
I shall be very happy in making such excursions with 
you, when we shall be better qualified to investigate 
causes, by discerning with more clearness and precision 
their effects. In the mean time, my dear friend, until 
that happy period arrives, I hope your attention to the 
subject of your queries will be productive of discove- 
ries useful and important, such as will entitle you to a 
higher compliment than was paid to Newton by Pope, 



58 



in the character of his Superior Beings ; with this 
difference, however, that it be paid by those Beings 
themselves." 

Little dreamed these veteran philosophers and 
friends, how soon the truth of their pleasant theories 
was to be tested, and how almost simultaneously they 
were indeed about to enter upon an excursion to the 
stars ! On the 17th of April, 1790, Franklin died, at 
the advanced age of eighty-four years. On the 6th of 
November, of the same year, at the earlier age of 
sixty-four years, borne down by the pressure of severe 
disease, Bowdoin followed him to the grave. 

The death of Bowdoin was in admirable keeping 
with his life. " Inspired by religion, (says the obit- 
uary of the time,) and upheld by the Father of Mer- 
cies, he endured a most painful sickness with the 
greatest firmness and patience, and received the stroke 
of death with a calmness, a resignation, and compos- 
ure, that marked the truly great and good man." 

He had not contented himself with a life of unstain- 
ed purity and unstinted benevolence ; nor had he post- 
poned the more serious preparations for death to the 
scanty and precarious opportunities of a last illness. 
He had embraced the religion of the Gospel at an 
early period of his life, upon studious examination and 
serious conviction. If his philosophic mind ever en- 
tertained doubts, he strove, and strove successfully, to 
remove them. He has left it upon record, that " But- 
ler's Analogy " was of the greatest service to him in 
satisfying his mind as to the truths of Christianity. 
" From the time of my reading that book, (said he,) 
I have been an humble follower of the blessed Jesus ;" 



59 



and, as the moment of his dissohition drew nigh, he 
expressed his perfect satisfaction and confidence that 
he was " going to the full enjoyment of God and his 
Hedeemer." 

Rarely has the end of a public man in New Eng- 
land been marked by evidences of a deeper or more 
general regret. " Great and respectable (we are told) 
was the concourse which attended his funeral ; every 
species of occupation was suspended ; all ranks and or- 
ders of men, the clergy and the laity, the magistrate and 
the citizen, men of leisure and men of business, testi- 
fied their affection and respect by joining in the solemn 
procession ; and crowds of spectators lined the streets 
through which it passed, whilst an uncommon silence 
and order e^^ery where marked the deepness of their 
sorrow." 

Such were the becoming tokens of public respect 
for the memory of one who had devoted no less than 
thirty-six years of his life to the service of his Com- 
monwealth and his Country ; who had sustained him- 
self in the highest offices of trust and responsibility? 
and in the greatest emergencies of difficulty and dan- 
ger, without fear and without reproach ; and of whom 
it is not too much to say, that he had exhibited him- 
self always the very personification of that just and 
resolute man of the Roman poet, whom neither the 
mandates of a foreign tyrant, nor the menaces of do- 
mestic rebels, could shake from his established prin- 
ciples. 

" Justum, et tenacem propositi vii*um 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 
Non vultus instantis tyranni, 
Mente quatit solida." 



60 



I can find no other words for summing up his char- 
acter, than the admirable sentence of Judge Lowell : 

" It may be said that our country has produced 
many men of as much genius ; many men of as much, 
learning and knowledge ; many of as much zeal for 
the liberties of theii' country ; and many of as great 
piety and virtue ; but is it not rare mdeecl, to find 
those in whom they have all combined, and been 
adorned, with his other accomplishments 1 " 

Governor Bowdoin was early married to Elizabeth 
Erving, a lady of most respectable family and of most 
estimable qualities, who, with their two chilch-en, sur- 
vived him. 

Of his only son, James Bowdom, I need say nothing 
in this presence and on this spot. He w^as kno^vn 
elsewhere as a gentleman of liberal education and 
large fortune, repeatedly a member of both branches 
of the Legislature of Massachusetts, and who received 
from Mr. Jefferson the appointments successively of 
Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain, and 
Associate Special Minister with General Annstrong to 
the Court of France. He is known here by other and 
more enduring memorials. He died without children ; 
but it was only to give new attestation to that quamt 
conceit of Lord Bacon's, — "Surely a man shall see 
the noblest works and foundations have proceeded 
from childless men ; who have sought to express the 
images of their minds, where those of their bodies have 
failed : so the care of posterity is most in them that 
have no posterity." 

With him the name of Bowdoin, by direct descent 
in the male line, passed away from the annals of New 



61 



England ; but, even had there been no collaterals and 
kinsfolk worthy to wear, and proud to adopt and per- 
petuate it, the day, the place, the circumstances of 
this occasion, afford ample evidence that it has been 
inscribed where it will not be forgotten. When 
Anaxagoras of Clazomene was asked by the Senate 
of Lampsacus how they should commemorate his ser- 
vices, he replied, " By ordaining that the day of my 
death be annually kept as a holiday in all the schools 
of Lampsacus." And, certainly, if any man may be 
said to have taken a bond against oblivion, it is he 
whose name is worthily associated with a great insti- 
tution of education. Who shall undertake to assign 
limits to the duration of the memories of Harvard, 
and Yale, and Bowdoin, and the rest, as long as ano- 
ther, and still another generation of young men shall 
continue to come up to the seats of learning which 
they have founded, and to go forth again into the world 
with a ijrateful sense of their inestimable advantaofes 1 
The hero, the statesman, the martyr, may be forgotten ; 
but the name of the Founder of a College is written 
where it shall be remembered and repeated to the last 
syllable of recorded time. Semper — Senijier honos, 
nomenque tuiim, laudesque manehimt ! 

And may I not add, Mr. President and Gentle- 
men, in conclusion, that the name of Bowdoin is 
intrinsically worthy to be held in such perpetual 
remembrance ? Do not the facts which I have thus 
imperfectly set before you, justify me in saying, with- 
out the fear of being reproached with even a not 
unnatural partiality, that there are few names in our 
country's history, which will better bear being held 



62 

up before the young men of New England, as the 
distmguishmg designation of their Alma Mater "? 

The mere money which endows a school or a college, 
is not the only or the highest contribution to the cause 
of education or improvement. It may have been ac- 
quired by dishonorable trade or accursed traffic. It 
may have been amassed by sordid hoardings, or wrmig 
from oppressed dependents. It may carry with it to 
the minds of those for whom it provides, the pernicious 
idea, that a pecuniary bequest may purchase oblivion 
for a life of injustice and avarice, or secure for the vile 
and the infamous that ever fresh and fragrant renown, 
which belongs to the memory of the just. 

The noblest contribution which any man can make 
for the benefit of posterity is that of a good character. 
The richest bequest which any man can leave to the 
youth of his native land, is that of a shining, spotless 
example. 

Let not, then, the ingenuous and pure-hearted 
young men, who are gathered within these walls, im- 
agine that it is only on account of the munificence of 
the younger Bowdoin, that I would claim for the name 
their respect and reverence. Let them examine the 
history of that name through four successive genera- 
tions ; let them follow it from the landing at Casco to 
the endowment of the College ; let them consider the 
religious constancy of the humble Huguenot, who 
sought freedom of conscience on the shores of yonder 
bay ; let them remember the diligence, enterprise, and 
honesty of the Boston merchant ; let them recall the 
zeal for science, the devotion to liberty, the love for his 
country, its constitution and its union, — the firmness. 



63 



the purity, the piety of the Massachusetts patriot ; and 
let them add to these the many estimable qualities 
which adorned the character of their more immediate 
benefactor, and they will agree with me, and you, gen- 
tlemen, will agree with them, that it would be difficult 
to find a name which, within the same period of time, 
has furnished a nobler succession of examples for their 
admiration and imitation ! And neither of you, I am 
sure, Avill regret the hour, which has now been spent, 
in once more brushing off the dust and mould which 
had begun to gather and thicken upon memories, 
which, m these halls at least, will never be permitted 
to perish ! 



i 



APPENDIX. 



PROCEEDINGS OE THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, 

IN FAVOR OF A CONVENTION TO REVISE THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 

[See page 43.] 

Resolve, recommending a Convention of Delegates from all the States, 
for the purpose mentioned, July I, 17S5. 

As the prosperity and happiness of a nation cannot be secured 
without a due proportion of power lodged in the hands of the 
Supreme Rulers of the State, the present embarrassed situation of 
our public affairs, must lead the mind of the most inattentive ob- 
server to realize the necessity of a revision of the powers vested in 
the Congress of the United States, by the articles of confederation. 

And as we conceive it to be equally the duty and the privilege of 
every State in the Union, freely to communicate their sentiments 
to the rest on every subject relating to their common interest, and 
to solicit their concurrence in such measures as the exigency of 
their public affairs may require : 

Therefore, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Court, thai 
the present powers of the Congress of the United States, as con- 
tained in the Articles of Confederation, are not fully adequate to 
the great purposes they were originally designed to effect. 

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Court, that it is highly 

expedient, if not indispensably necessary, that there should be a 
9 



66 



convention of delegates from all the States in the Union, at some 
convenient place, as soon as may be, for the sole purpose of revis- 
ing the Confederation, and reporting to Congress how far it may be 
necessary to alter or enlarge the same. 

Resolved, That Congress be, and they are hereby requested to 
recommend a Convention of Delegates from all the States, at such 
time and place as they may think convenient, to revise the Confed- 
eration, and report to Congress how far it may be necessary, in 
their opinion, to alter or enlarge the same, in order to secure and 
perpetuate the primary objects of the Union. 



LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. 

Sir — Impressed with the importance and necessity of revising 
the powers of the United States in Congress assembled, the Gen- 
eral Court of the Massachusetts have taken the subject under their 
serious consideration, and have adopted the inclosed resolutions, 
which you are requested to communicate. Should the nature and 
importance of the subject appear to Congress in the same point of 
light that it does to this Court, they flatter themselves, that Con- 
gress will so far endeavor to carry their views into effect, as to 
recommend a Convention of the States, at some convenient place, 
on an early day, that the evils so severely experienced from the 
want of adequate powers in the Federal Government, may find a 
remedy as soon as possible. 

As a perfect harmony among the States is an object no less im- 
portant than desirable, the Legislature of the Massachusetts have 
aimed at that unassuming openness of conduct, and respectful 
attention to the rights of every State in the Union, as they doubt 
not will secure their confidence, and meet the approbation of Con- 
gress. 

A circular letter to the States is herewith transmitted to Con- 
gress, which they are requested to forward, with their recommen- 
dation for a Convention of Delegates from the States, if they should 



67 



so far concur in sentiment with the Court, as to deem such a recom- 
mendation advisable. 



TO THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE OF EACH STATE. 

The unequal footing on which we find ourselves placed by all 
the powers with whom we have any commercial intercourse, has 
produced consequences too extensive not to be universally felt, and 
too important to be longer neglected. 

As commerce, and our national credit and importance, must de- 
cline, unless our Representatives in Congress are vested with more 
efficient powers, we cannot doubt of your ready concurrence in 
measures necessary to accomplish so important a purpose. 

We have, by a Resolve of this day, made application to the 
United States in Congress assembled, for such recommendation to 
the several States, as shall be thought most conducive to the pur- 
poses aforesaid, a copy of which Resolve, with the letter inclosing 
it, addressed to the President of Congress, is herewith transmitted 
you. Should you be in sentiment with us, that the measures pro- 
posed are the proper expedients to relieve us from the national 
embarrassments we labor under, you are requested to signify your 
approbation of them to Congress, as early as possible. 



TO THE DELEGATES OF THIS STATE IN CONGRESS. 

Gentlemen — You have herewith transmitted you, copies of a 
Resolve of the General Court, accompanied by a letter to the Pres- 
ident of Congress, and a Circular Letter to the States, upon busi- 
ness of the greatest importance to this, as well as every State in 
the Union, as you will readily perceive by a perusal of them. 

You are therefore directed to take the earliest opportunity of 
laying them before Congress, and making every exertion in your 
power to carry the object of them into efTect, and to give notice to 
the Governor as early as possible of the success of such applica- 



tion. 



68 

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be, and he is 
hereby requested, in behalf of the Legislature, to sign the forego- 
ing letter to the President of Congress, the Supreme Executive of 
the several States, and to the Delegates of this Commonwealth in 
Congress, and to forward them accordingly. 



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